What was your first bird of 2013? Let us know in the comments…and, if you wrote a blog post or have a picture of your first bird of the year online somewhere, well, leave a link in the comments too.
Happy New Year from all of us at 10,000 Birds! And here’s hoping you see many great birds, including lots of lifers, in 2013! After all, 2012 was a pretty great year and there is no reason 2013 can’t be the same!
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
1st bird was Little Friarbird and 101st bird was Wedge-tailed Eagle! 🙂
I started the new year with a flock of Long-tailed Tits, a pretty little bird. Only 402 to go to beat last year’s total.
Mourning Doves, and I am quite pleased.
Actually four were all at feeder area , Redpoll,goldfinch,junco,and mourning dove.
Pine siskin- Also at feeder: cardinal, tufted titmouse. dark-eyed junco
American Goldfinch and Chipping Sparrow on the feeder before full sunrise.
A Towhee calling outside the window.
I got Ring-billed Gull…which was fortunate because the next three were pigeon, starling, and House Sparrow.
House Sparrow.
First heard was Boat-tailed Grackle, first seen was Laughing Gull, flying over the A-1 canal. It’s good to start the birding year in southern Florida.
A female hummingbird, ruby-throated, I think, on our fountain bathing.
The first bird i’ve seen for the year is the first one i see everyday a Barbados Bullfinch. This guy thinks my house is his house so he visits for food. Pestty little guy
Bird of the day was a Hen Harrier, a very rare bird for Britain.
My first bird of the year was a Cedar Waxwing still hanging around eating berries from my photinia bushes this morning. When they arrived a few days ago, they were a new yard bird for me! I wrote a post about them here.
Ring-billed Gull ….Hmm. If I’d roused myself while it was still dark it could have been Eastern Screech Owl. If’ I’d driven blindfolded a mile or two, maybe Rudy Ducks or Redhead. I’ll settle for the gull and hope for better in the 52 weeks ahead
Appropriate for Indiana, my first bird of the year was a Northern Cardinal.
The first bird for me was a Blue Jay.
Western North Carolina
Common Redpoll! Photo here (along with some not-so-resolute resolutions):
http://www.scriberule.org/251birds/?p=693
Pine Warbler at my suet feeder!
A beautiful Pileated Woodpecker in the front lawn.
saw beautiful cardinals and dark eyed juncos
Mine was a @#$& crow, just a regular old garden-variety American crow. Not only did he get my birding year off to a thoroughly pedestrian start, but he coughed up a crow pellet on my balcony. Then, a gull arrived. I did spot a northern flicker, a bit later, but by that time, I’d been well-visited by trash birds. http://www.eggsuckdog.net/no-crow-pellets/
I heard a rooster calling a few minutes into 2013, but I don’t think that counts…
Otherwise it would’ve been either a rufous-naped wren or a tropical kingbird. I’m pretty sure about the wren but I had totally forgotten about the “first bird of the year” thing, so it could’ve been either.
Hooded mergansers, up in the northern end of the lake in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
I had a fly-by of one of the Anna’s Hummingbirds that are wintering over and visiting my feeders many times a day. At the time I was hanging a clean, refilled large hummingbird feeder in the early AM (Seattle area).
Started the year with an Island Scrub-Jay on Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands N.P.
I avoided looking out the windows that always have House Sparrows….just long enough to walk out to the driveway and see two…..Pigeons! I will not be blogging about this.
I had a flock of Common Redpolls at my finch feeder. Amongst this flock of about a dozen individuals was a Hoary Redpoll! This is only the 4th individual of this species that I have seen. I had one stay for a while at my feeder in the winter of 2008.
My first bird was a few Mourning Doves perched on a neighbor’s birch tree. Definitely a good way to start the year.
As it quite often is, this year’s first bird was a Grey Jay seen at Hollyburn Lodge in West Vancouver, British Columbia.
My first bird of the New Year was a Carolina Chickadee 🙂